I thought I'd start a 2015 thread for Houston Dash fans and those interested in commenting on the Dash upcoming season. I also want to add that what I've seen in the offseason and the draft potential that they have, I believe the Dash will be much, much better then their first season. I also would like to add as a long time Notre Dame fan that I have seen what Randy Waldrum can do when he has talent especially in the midfield. Waldrum is a student of the game. He will play to the strength of his players and not by some hardheaded unchangeable ideology. He will do well with next year's team. Unfortunately he will not have Brian and Lloyd for the whole season. The Dash need to draft Morgan Brian or get her allocated to them. With Brian and Lloyd in the midfield, watch out Seattle.
I could see the Dash making a big turn around this season, with their draft/trades, and getting injured players back. makes for an interesting season!!!
Ching and co. have said in various interviews that they're drafting Brian. And yes, she does have to go through the draft process instead of being outright allocated. If I had my choice, she'd be straight-up allocated to the Flash instead of getting drafted, but since Dunn had to get drafted, so should Brian. The biggest concern seems to be the defense. It wasn't that great, and not enough attention was paid to fixing that area up.
Yeah, precedents r great until the league needs it to work the other way...then they forget about them. U want to start a letter writing campaign to the league...the title should be allocate Franch to WNY.
So I was thinking about the amateur players Houston might add while the WCers r away making us proud. Maybe they could pick up Amy Rodriguez old USC strike partner Megan Cushing. She is 25, doesnt need a paying job and has some chemistry with one of the other Dash strikers.
While it might be a feel-good story to have the Ohai sisters play together, I'm not sure Houston needs any amateur replacement strikers. They'll still have Ohai, Masar, Henderson, and McCarty during the WWC.
Well if she can play in the MF, that would be a completely different story... The question is probably just whether Megan is interested in it or not. She does have two children to look after, though I guess they could afford a nanny.
Well I dont think she is looking for a career but it might be fun to be a replacement player if she is interested in getting into game shape.
The Dash will be flush with midfielders during the season, but really, really short handed during the WWC break. I'd be curious and wouldn't mind seeing how that kind off the field chemistry works out. That being said, I'm still holding out against all the doubters for K to make the squad.
Due to the roster limit of 20 players, teams will struggle to manage their rosters in the first half of the season. In the case of the Dash they currently carry 21 tho I have a feeling it will be down to 20 when allocations r finally announced. Of those 21, 8 will likely go to WC leaving then 13 roster spots. They also have three draft picks and u have to figure #1 and #13 will likely make the squad. If the #1 pick also goes to WC they r now down to 12 pro players plus whatever amateur players they add to get thru til July. And that's the rub. Doing the math, Houston will cut three professional players to get down to 20 only to then replace them with amateurs. Wouldnt it make more sense to just increase the roster size until WC is over? The actual roster size is 23 anyway as there r three injured reserve spots. Doesnt just giving them the IR slots until July make more sense?
The problem is, there does't seem to be any way they're going to increase the salary cap. So, if they increase their professional roster, they're going to have to pay players less. And, the players already are underpaid. It's hard to see them cutting pay to increase roster size. Rather, everyone deals with the same problem and uses amateurs.
Why not? They just need to ensure it's not raised so much as to put teams out of business. Would an additional $18,000 for 3 more players put teams out of business? You can say it would, but teams wouldn't be required to spend that extra $18,000... so I dunno. I would hope that the teams have learned that they need keep their budget to a sustainable level, even if the cap allows for more than they can afford.
IMO the Dash should offer Noyola and Kyle to other teams in exchange for a 1st or 2nd round pick since they will be away at WWC and will hardly get playing time when they come back as they have a stacked MF. With the Draft Picks they can get someone like Grubka or Hinkle to strenghten the backline.They can also draft Groom who is a good option as a CF that they desperately need.
It's easy to say what's another $18,000 when it's not your money. The thing that underlies the league and its potential for success, and puts it ahead of its predecessor in that regard, is its strict adherence to the salary cap. The most important thing at this stage of development, I believe, is for the league to be financially realistic and maintain financial discipline. That's harsh for the players, I know, and fans might not like it, but I don't see a good alternative.
It's easy to say when it's only 9% of their current salary cap and even less of their total annual budget. It's not like I'm saying they should double the cap or some crazy amount. This is just the minimum (the base salary is reported to be $6,000) to get 3 more players so they don't have to rely on getting 3 college graduates who are willing to commit their entire summer to soccer for nothing more than their passion for the game but who are not good enough to go play abroad. Salary cap is only part of it. Cheaper venues and allocated players also are a huge part of that. Sure that's important. But being financially realistic and maintaining financial discipline does not mean that the salary cap can't be increased. It just means they need to make sure not to spend more than they can afford. If $18,000 is gonna break the bank for a team, then they really need to improve their revenue stream. I mean, take SBFC for instance, $18,000 is 150 of their cheapest season tickets. So all they would have to do to stay at the same financial level is improve ticket sales by an average of 150 per game. Is that impossible? Well, Seattle was able to do it and then some. And the next lowest average team had 378 more fans per game, so I think it's possible.
Well I didnt say increase the cap I just said let them use the IR spaces for WC players if they want to. Then it comes down to budgeting to pay three lower wage players for half a season. Some teams may not want or cant do that with their cap but those that can should be able to. This isnt a 7 day camp dropped in the middle of the season...this is April, May and June.
The problem with that is that almost all the income in this is from ticket sales. If ur trying to protect the cap by having an inferior product and u lose fans, how have u helped urself?
It doesnt even have to be $18,000 because u dont need to expand the rosters for the entire season. In July, if u wanted u could go back to 20 max and ud only need about a $10k increase. There is always some sorting out anyway. Player get hurt in NWSL matches or come back from WC injured. It just makes sense Houston for example believes they will have 8 players unavailable because of WC, leaving them a roster of 12 pros plus 8 amateurs. Because they have 20 players (without Noyola) plus three draft picks, they will likely have to cut three professional player before the season only to replace them with amateurs (and possibly the same three players they cut). It's crazy.
This is why I've previously suggested letting teams have professional reserves. Reserve players would presumably make even less than the first team players, so you can make that cap even lower. But you pay them something so they are willing to stick around rather than go abroad or retire.
They need to do something. There is a difference between using a cap to control salaries and only having 13 pro players available in what they advertise as the only fully professional woman's league in the world.
They haven't been in the particular situation we're going to see this year, but so far I don't agree. Teams in the past have brought in the amateurs and it hasn't been a disaster. What's more, how much is it going to hurt if the added players are amateurs? With a few exceptions, attendance hasn't been that great anyway. Is it really going to make a difference? It might to some BS posters, but beyond that how much will it matter? I personally enjoyed getting to see the amateurs at least on the bench.
Uve missed my point. It's great for the amateurs to get that chance. The players suffering from this r the borderline roster members. Some of these players r going to be released even tho there teams r short on actual players. I can see no good reason to count players against the roster limit who wont play their first game until July. What am I missing here?